Interview: Celebrity Fitness Trainer Jackie Warner’s No Excuses Health & Fitness Tips for the New Year

Celebrity fitness trainer Jackie Warner gained fame on her hit reality shows “Work Out” and “Thintervention with Jackie Warner” on Bravo, but has been training clients since opening her first health center Lift at the age of 23. Her gym Sky Sport & Spa was featured on Bravo’s Work Out. As one of the most prominent trainers on the planet, the tough-as-nails Warner is who celebs and fitness afficianados flock to when looking to get in shape or lose weight! Jackie was kind enough to join me yesterday to share tips on how you can lose weight and feel great in the new year, and how one lucky person can win the chance of a lifetime to work out with her in Los Angeles.

Celebrity fitness trainer Jackie Warner shares tips for setting realistic resolutions and discusses how one lucky person can win the chance to work out with her in Los Angeles.

Candace Rose: What are your thoughts on New Year’s resolutions? Do they tend to work?

Jackie Warner: “That’s a really loaded question. First of all, people have to understand that setting a New Year’s resolution has got to be a realistic goal, and it has to really work with your lifestyle. If you’re a person that doesn’t like to lift weights and go to the gym and train yourself, then by all means you should not get an expensive gym membership and force yourself to go and lift weights. You’re going to stick with that for 30 days, which is basically on average how long people stick with their gym memberships when they’re not used to that lifestyle. I always urge people to do something different, so for instance find something that you have secretly always wanted to try like dancing or boot camps or boxing, and Google search and put your zip code in and find a location- a class or trainer that teaches that in your area. You’re much more likely to stay on point when you try something that you like to do as opposed to saying ‘Oh my gosh I’ve got to take my medicine, I have to do it. So that’s what I mean working with your lifestyle.

I just want to tell you I’m partnering with Wisk Deep Clean to launch the ‘Work It, Wisk It’ campaign. And this is significant for your viewers because you can go to Wisk’s Facebook page and get a lot of these questions on how to set resolutions and how to set goals. I give you a lot of tools to get the sweat in and out of your clothes, so basically go to intensity.”

Candace Rose: And speaking of sweat, you’ve said that ‘sweat is sexy’. How can we embrace sweat and build confidence through fitness?

Jackie Warner: “Well, a healthy sweat comes from being passionate and throwing yourself into your workout. And again, it’s achieving that intensity. I always like to say ‘It’s not how long, it’s how strong’. So for instance when you’re resistance training you want to combine four to six exercises together in one super set and do those back to back with little or no rest in between. It keeps your heart rate elevated so you’re in the cardiovascular mode and which keeps you burning by the way, eight to 12 hours after your routine which is significant. With your cardio you always want to incorporate high intensity interval training which is sort of this interval training where you lower your heart rate and then you increase it- spike your heart rate by doing these fast runs or fast elliptical training or fast stairs. So you want to go back and forth in between the two. And this is just a really get that intensity at the gym.”

Candace Rose: And how can we stay motivated when we begin to lose willpower?

Jackie Warner: “Don’t set unrealistic goals and don’t just set weight loss goals. So don’t say I want to lose 30 pounds in 30 days. Say, you know what I want to lose weight- say 30 pounds in three to six months for instance. But more importantly I want to knock out 20 pushups a day or I want to run a 3K a day and time myself, and try to beat my time every time every week. Or I want to increase my speed on the treadmill for instance and beat my time every week or every month. So you want to attach a fitness goal along with your weight loss goal.

Another thing is make simple changes. Instead of saying ‘I’m going to cut all bad foods out of my diet’, simply add foods initially, at least for the first two weeks. Add healthy nutrient foods to your diet, so maintain your diet, but say I need to get my four to five servings of vegetables in. I do need to get my two fruit servings in and I need to get my lean proteins in per day, and my good fat source. Trust me, when you add all those nutrients into your foods into your foods, it’s going to balance your hormones and decrease your cravings for bad foods.”

Candace Rose: What are your thoughts on drinks? Should we have eight glasses of water a day?

Jackie Warner: “Oh more than that. Oh no, you should have more eight glasses of water a day. Studies show that if you increase your water intake by three liters, it actually increases your metabolism by about 33%. That’s huge! What that tells me is that if you’re increasing by three liters you’re going to naturally drop weight and that’s very significant.”

Candace Rose: Can you tell us about the ‘Work It, Wisk It’ campaign, and how people can win a chance to work out with you?

Jackie Warner: “Yeah, I think it’s pretty cool and I’m excited to see who wins this campaign, and who gets to be flown out to L.A. So Wisk is offering the ‘Work It, Wisk It’ campaign where you get to enter to win a trip to Los Angeles and to work out with me. So you’re either going to look forward to that or not look forward to that because I do kick butt in the gym, that’s for sure. It’s going to be fun. I always make it a fun work out, and I love to give information to my client (whoever I’m training). So just go to the Wisk Facebook page and you can get a lot of information about it.”

Candace Rose: Do you have any additional tips or information you’d like to share?

Jackie Warner: “Yeah, just always eat five small meals a day: so breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner. Never starve yourself because when you starve yourself your insulin levels drop and then the next thing you put in your mouth is twice as effectively stored as fat. So you never want to skip a meal, so that’s my biggest tip today.”